【英语语言学习】如何将声音永久保存

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

OK, here's a question. If a tree falls in the forest and someone records it, does the sound last forever? We are increasingly finding out that the answer is no. Fragile records from the 1940s are breaking, cassette tapes from the '80s are falling apart, not even digital is forever.

NPR's Emily Siner explores how the Library of Congress is trying to save millions of our nation's recordings³ before they're lost.

EMILY SINER, BYLINE⁴: When an archaeologist discovers fragments of a civilization, the result is pretty incredible. Just listen to Andrea Berlin. She's an archaeologist and professor at Boston University, and her very first dig was in southern Israel.

ANDREA BERLIN: I found myself excavating⁵ the room of a house that somebody had lived in, in around 800 BCE.

SINER: Oh, my gosh.

BERLIN: That's what I thought. I felt like a time traveler.

SINER: Berlin studies people in the Mediterranean⁶ from 2- or 3,000 years ago. She finds their sculptures and tools, and lots of pottery⁷. But one thing she doesn't find is their audio.

BERLIN: I think archaeologists are jealous of historians who have modern information sources - audio, for example; individual interviews and shows and recordings.

SINER: Because sound adds another layer of context to history. Gene⁹ DeAnna at the Library of Congress has an example.

GENE DEANNA: Hearing Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING²)

THE REV¹. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR: I have a dream that one day, this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed¹⁰...

DEANNA: To hear him say it, rather than read the words, is a much more visceral and significant, I think, medium for it.

SINER: DeAnna oversees¹¹ the library's decades-long project to digitize the sounds of the past, from iconic speeches...

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT: That the only thing we have to fear is fear itself...

SINER: ...to patriotic¹² songs from World War I...

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: (Singing) Make your mother proud of you and the old red, white and blue

SINER: ...to operatic tenor¹³ Enrico Caruso, singing in 1904.

ENRICO CARUSO: (Singing in foreign language)

SINER: But preserving audio is a bigger job than it sounds. When working with old formats¹⁴, it's a race against time. With wax cylinders¹⁵ from the 1890s, the heat from your hands can cause them to crack. Records made of glass during World War II are so fragile that they can break even when they're handled properly. And DeAnna says if it's on a cassette tape, it's automatically at risk.

DEANNA: No matter how well it was recorded, by whom, on what equipment, it's on a cassette, and it's just a terrible format⁸ for archiving.

SINER: So this is a big job. They're digitizing about 15,000 recordings a year. And that's only a fraction of what they have.

DEANNA: We're probably acquiring between 50- and 100,000 a year. We're at least stabilizing¹⁶ them in a good environment so that their deterioration¹⁷ will slow down. And we'll, hopefully, get to most of them before they're lost.

SINER: The good news is, they're not the only ones working on it. Other institutions - like the Harvard Library and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory - are also making strides in preserving audio. The trick is preserving not only the audio from the past, but also the audio we're recording today.

Andrea Berlin says if that survives, future archaeologists will be thrilled.

BERLIN: I'm always thinking: Well, in 200 years and in 500 years and in 1,000 years, there will be other people studying us. Maybe they'll be able to hear us.

SINER: Emily Siner, NPR News, Washington.

1 rev   

v.发动机旋转，加快速度

参考例句：

• It's his job to rev up the audience before the show starts.他要负责在表演开始前鼓动观众的热情。
• Don't rev the engine so hard.别让发动机转得太快。

2 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

3 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 excavating   

v.挖掘( excavate的现在分词 )；开凿；挖出；发掘

参考例句：

• A bulldozer was employed for excavating the foundations of the building. 推土机用来给楼房挖地基。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A new Danish expedition is again excavating the site in annual summer digs. 一支新的丹麦探险队又在那个遗址上进行一年一度的夏季挖掘。 来自辞典例句

6 Mediterranean   

adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的

参考例句：

• The houses are Mediterranean in character.这些房子都属地中海风格。
• Gibraltar is the key to the Mediterranean.直布罗陀是地中海的要冲。

7 pottery   

n.陶器，陶器场

参考例句：

• My sister likes to learn art pottery in her spare time.我妹妹喜欢在空余时间学习陶艺。
• The pottery was left to bake in the hot sun.陶器放在外面让炎热的太阳烘晒焙干。

8 format   

n.设计，版式；[计算机]格式，DOS命令:格式化(磁盘)，用于空盘或使用过的磁盘建立新空盘来存储数据；v.使格式化，设计，安排

参考例句：

• Please format this floppy disc.请将这张软盘格式化。
• The format of the figure is very tasteful.该图表的格式很雅致。

9 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。

10 creed   

n.信条；信念，纲领

参考例句：

• They offended against every article of his creed.他们触犯了他的每一条戒律。
• Our creed has always been that business is business.我们的信条一直是公私分明。

11 oversees   

v.监督，监视( oversee的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She oversees both the research and the manufacturing departments. 她既监督研究部门又监督生产部门。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Department of Education oversees the federal programs dealing with education. 教育部监管处理教育的联邦程序。 来自互联网

12 patriotic   

adj.爱国的，有爱国心的

参考例句：

• His speech was full of patriotic sentiments.他的演说充满了爱国之情。
• The old man is a patriotic overseas Chinese.这位老人是一位爱国华侨。

13 tenor   

n.男高音（歌手），次中音（乐器），要旨，大意

参考例句：

• The tenor of his speech was that war would come.他讲话的大意是战争将要发生。
• The four parts in singing are soprano,alto,tenor and bass.唱歌的四个声部是女高音、女低音、男高音和男低音。

14 formats   

n.（出版物的）版式( format的名词复数 )；[电视]电视节目的总安排（或计划）

参考例句：

• They are producing books in all kinds of different formats. 他们出版各种不同开本的书籍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A true GUI includes standard formats for representing text and graphics. 真正的图形用户界面包括表示文字和图形的标准格式。 来自互联网

15 cylinders   

n.圆筒( cylinder的名词复数 )；圆柱；汽缸；（尤指用作容器的）圆筒状物

参考例句：

• They are working on all cylinders to get the job finished. 他们正在竭尽全力争取把这工作干完。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• That jeep has four cylinders. 那辆吉普车有4个汽缸。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 stabilizing   

n.稳定化处理[退火]v.（使）稳定， （使）稳固( stabilize的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The disulfide bridges might then be viewed primarily as stabilizing components. 二硫桥可以被看作是初级的稳定因素。 来自辞典例句
• These stabilizing design changes are usually not desirable for steady-state operation. 这些增加稳定性的设计改变通常不太符合稳态工作的要求。 来自辞典例句

17 deterioration   

n.退化；恶化；变坏

参考例句：

• Mental and physical deterioration both occur naturally with age. 随着年龄的增长，心智和体力自然衰退。
• The car's bodywork was already showing signs of deterioration. 这辆车的车身已经显示出了劣化迹象。